Editing Foot binding (section)

===Later eras===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 116-127-075, China, Tsingtau-Chinesin.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|Small bound feet were once considered beautiful while large unbound feet were judged as crude.]]

At the end of the [[Song dynasty]], men would drink from a special shoe, the heel of which contained a small cup. During the [[Yuan dynasty]] some would also drink directly from the shoe itself. This practice was called 'toast to the golden lotus' and lasted until the late [[Qing dynasty]].<ref name="shoe">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Ifj9h4Z4YQC&pg=PA164 |title=The Art of the Shoe |author=Marie-Josèphe Bossan |page=164 |publisher=Parkstone Press Ltd |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-85995-803-2}}</ref>

The first European to mention foot binding was the Italian missionary [[Odoric of Pordenone]] in the 14th&nbsp;century, during the Yuan dynasty.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iL2AAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA196 |title=Women and the Family in Chinese History |first=Patricia |last=Ebrey |page=196 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134442935 |date=2003-09-02}}</ref> However no other foreign visitors to Yuan China mentioned the practice, including [[Ibn Battuta]] and [[Marco Polo]] (who nevertheless noted the dainty walk of Chinese women, who took very small steps), perhaps an indication that it was not a widespread or extreme practice at that time.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSfvfr8VQSEC&pg=PA55 |title=Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan |first=Stephen G. |last=Haw |pages=55–56 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134275427 |date=2006-11-22}}</ref> The Mongols themselves did not practice footbinding but it was permitted for their Chinese subjects.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2UAlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA218 |title=Encyclopedia of Chinese History |date=2016 |page=218 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781317817161}}</ref><ref name="pitts-taylor"/> The practice became increasingly common among the gentry families, later spreading to the general populace, as commoners and theatre actors alike adopted foot binding. By the [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] period the practice was no longer the preserve of the gentry but it was considered a status symbol.<ref name="Rosenlee2012">{{cite book |author=Li-Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee |title=Confucianism and Women: A Philosophical Interpretation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTvLQbaH81wC&pg=PA141 |date=1 February 2012 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-8179-0 |pages=141–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lw1_yKwk_XkC&pg=PA37 |page=37 |title=China Chic: East Meets West |author1=Valerie Steele |author2=John S. Major |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-300-07931-9}}</ref><ref name="Wang2000">{{cite book |author=Ping Wang |title=Aching for Beauty: Footbinding in China |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cVY_cVZ9rKIC&q=mongols |year=2000 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-3605-1 |pages=32–}}</ref> As foot binding restricted the movement of a woman, one side effect of its rising popularity was the corresponding decline of the [[history of Chinese dance|art of women's dance in China]], and it became increasingly rare to hear about beauties and courtesans who were also great dancers after the Song era.<ref name="hansson">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Ibp1RTW0AoC&pg=PA46 |title=Chinese Outcasts: Discrimination and Emancipation in Late Imperial China |author=Anders Hansson |page=46 |publisher=Brill |year=1996 |isbn=978-9004105966}}</ref>{{sfn|van Gulik|1961|p=222}}

[[File:Chaussure chinoise Saverne 02 05 2012 1.jpg|thumb|230px|A lotus shoe for bound feet, [[Municipal Museum (Saverne)|Louise Weiss collection, Saverne]]]]

The [[Manchu people|Manchus]] issued a number of edicts to ban the practice, first in 1636 when the Manchu leader [[Hong Taiji]] declared the founding of the new Qing dynasty, then in 1638, and another in 1664 by the Kangxi Emperor.<ref name="Rosenlee2012"/> Few Han Chinese complied with the edicts, and Kangxi eventually abandoned the effort in 1668. By the 19th&nbsp;century, it was estimated that 40–50% of Chinese women had bound feet. Among upper class Han Chinese women, the figure was almost 100%.<ref name="lim"/> Bound feet became a mark of beauty and were also a prerequisite for finding a husband. They also became an avenue for poorer women to [[hypergamy|marry up]] in some areas, such as Sichuan.{{sfn|Brown|Bossen|Gates|Satterthwaite-Phillips|2012|pp=1035–1067}} In late 19th century Guangdong it was customary to bind the feet of the eldest daughter of a lower-class family who was intended to be brought up as a lady. Her younger sisters would grow up to be bond-servants or domestic slaves and be able to work in the fields, but the eldest daughter would be assumed never to have the need to work. Women, their families and their husbands took great pride in tiny feet, with the ideal length, called the 'Golden Lotus', being about three [[Cun (unit)|Chinese inches]] ({{lang|zh|寸}}) long—around {{convert|11|cm|in|abbr=on}}.{{sfn|Gates|2014|p=8}}<ref>{{cite web |last=Manning |first=Mary Ellen |title=China's "Golden Lotus Feet" - Foot-binding Practice |url=http://travel.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474976997081 |access-date=29 January 2012 |date=10 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928031927/http://travel.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474976997081 |archive-date=28 September 2013}}</ref> This pride was reflected in the elegantly embroidered silk slippers and wrappings girls and women wore to cover their feet. Handmade shoes served to exhibit the embroidery skill of the wearer as well.<ref name="bossen brown gates">{{Cite journal|last1=Bossen|first1=Laurel|last2=Xurui|first2=Wang|last3=Brown|first3=Melissa J.|last4=Gates|first4=Hill|date=2011|title=Feet and Fabrication: Footbinding and Early Twentieth-Century Rural Women's Labor in Shaanxi|journal=Modern China|volume=37|issue=4|pages=347–383|doi=10.1177/0097700411403265|jstor=23053328|pmid=21966702|s2cid=44529240|issn=0097-7004}}</ref> These shoes also served as support, as some women with bound feet might not have been able to walk without the support of their shoes and would have been severely limited in their mobility.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NieEnuWegkoC&pg=PA302 |title=Film Review — ''Footbinding: Search for the Three Inch Golden Lotus'' |journal=Anthropologica |date=2004 |volume=48 |issue=2 |first=Laurel |last=Bossen |pages=301–303 |doi=10.2307/25606208 |jstor=25606208|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Contrary to missionary writings, many women with bound feet were able to walk and work in the fields, albeit with greater limitations than their non-bound counterparts.{{sfn|Hershatter|2018|p=66}}

In the 19th and early 20th&nbsp;centuries, there were dancers with bound feet as well as circus performers who stood on prancing or running horses. Women with bound feet in one village in [[Yunnan]] Province formed a regional dance troupe to perform for tourists in the late 20th&nbsp;century, though age has since forced the group to retire.<ref name=wsj/> In other areas, women in their 70s and 80s assisted in the rice fields (albeit in a limited capacity) even into the early 21st&nbsp;century.<ref name="lim"/>